Scenes from a Greek play

The Spurs took down mighty Greek titan Olympiacos 107-89 in preseason action tonight. As in the loss to Houston earlier this week, the score is less important at this stage than what we learned.

Such as …

* Tony Parker is really, really good. OK, maybe we already knew this, but occasionally it’s good to be reminded. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Parker play in person, and he didn’t disappoint. Parker had 12 points and three assists in 15 minutes, and showed the predictable poise in the pick-and-roll game with Tim Duncan. Parker, by far, was the best player on the floor tonight. Not that it should be a surprise by now.

* Manu Ginobili needs work. Ginobili did some good things and some not so good things tonight. It helps to remember that he’s basically about a month into a return from five months off. He’s predictably rusty. He has a simple solution for his rust. “I need to play more,” Ginobili said. He’s hoping to incrementally increase his minutes over the next five preseason games, eventually getting up to 30.

* This team boasts a bunch of basketball Einsteins. The Spurs’ built a 20-point lead in the first half on the back of unselfish basketball. Parker would hit Duncan on a pick-and-roll, then Duncan would hit Parker on a cut. Parker sucked in the defense with a drive, then kicked to Michael Finley for a 3-pointer. At one point, two newcomers — Antonio McDyess and Richard Jefferson — connected on a backdoor layup. It was exciting to see, because many of the combinations Gregg Popovich used in this game were new to each other. Frightening how good they might be when they get on the same page.

* DeJuan Blair and Baby Shaq can collide without causing an earthquake. Who knew? Blair and Sofoklis Schortsanitis — aka “Baby Shaq” — went back-to-belly several times in the second half and nobody got hurt. Blair, who otherwise had a quiet night in limited minutes, held his own.

* Roger Mason’s still got it. Big Shot Rog finally found his stroke in the fourth quarter. He had 10 points in a four-minute span to help hold off an Olympiacos charge, getting his first bucket in classic Mason 3-2-1 style on a runner as the shot-clock expired. After Olympiacos cut the Spurs’ lead to eight with 6:37 to play, Mason answered with a 3-pointer, then a steal and coast-to-coast dunk to push the Spurs’ edge back to double-digits.